West Bengal most misruled state in the country: Congress

Kolkata, April 8 (IANS) Continuing its sharp attack on estranged ally Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Congress Wednesday said the Left Front ruled in West Bengal was the “most misruled” in the country. Two days after state Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee accused West Bengal’s Left Front government of failing to provide basic amenities, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K. Keshava Rao alleged that around 600,000 people lost their jobs in the state last year. Besides, 48,000 people were murdered - mostly in political violence - over the last 30 years.

“It is the most misruled state. Let them prove wrong a single fact that Mr Mukherjee gave. Infrastructure in West Bengal is much worse than in Andhra Pradesh, which also has 294 Assembly seats and the state is ranked lower than even Bihar and Jharkhand in education. The condition of health services is also very poor,” Rao said.

He described the Congress-Trinamool Congress tie-up for the coming Lok Sabha polls as a “futuristic step” to end the Left regime, and warned that party workers working against the alliance might be expelled.

“This is more a people’s alliance than that between two political parties. It is a people’s alliance against the Left Front’s 32 years of misrule. We entered into the tie-up because pressure was on us from the people for a credible combination of political parties to end the Left rule.”

“All partymen should understand this. If they do not, either they will have to leave or the party will expel them according to its Constitution,” Rao warned.

However, state Chief Minister and senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused to even respond to Rao’s allegations. “Who is Rao?” Bhattacharjee disdainfully remarked on the corridors of the state secretariat Writers Buildings.

This prompted Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to hit back at the chief minister and his party.

“They don’t know political courtesy. The long tenure in power has made them arrogant to no end,” Banerjee said.

The CPI-M-led four Left parties had propped up the centre’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, headed by the Congress, from outside in 2004. But the arrangement ended mid 2008 when the left parties withdrew support, protesting against the India-US civil nuclear deal.